Spirituality

Back To The Future

After two years without a rabbi, Beth Shalom installs Robert Gamer.

P hoto by Wendy Rob in s

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Senior Writer

F

or Rabbi Robert Gamer, a look
at Congregation Beth Shalom is
an unquestionable look forward.
Stepping in where there had been no rabbi
for two years, he plans to build on the
positives of the past, while moving into the
future.
"Beth Shalom has always been a warm,
heimish community,' he said."The plan is
to continue that way."
Gamer began his post at the Oak Park-
based synagogue in June, two years after
the departure of Rabbi Daniel Wolpe, who
was with Beth Shalom for two years.
"During the time they had no rabbi, the
congregation persevered and really stepped
up as a whole, leading services, reading
Torah': Gamer said.
Rabbi David Nelson, who has served
the congregation for nearly 40 years and is
now Beth Shalom's rabbi emeritus, made
himself available at times when a rabbi was
needed.
"And Cantor [Samuel] Greenbaum also
was fantastic, very central in helping the
synagogue community': Gamer said. "The
experience created a stronger, growing con-
gregation."
Still, he said, "I know they are happy to
have a rabbi again."
The congregation expressed that plea-
sure by hosting an Oct. 22-23 weekend of
events during which Gamer was installed
by friend and mentor Rabbi Dr. Eliezer
Diamond, the Rabbi Judah Nadich associate
professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the
Jewish Theological Seminary in New York
(JTS). About 400 attended a dinner Oct. 22.
"The congregation came in droves,"
Nelson said. "They were just waiting for the
right rabbi, and he's here."

Back Home
For Gamer, heading the Oak Park syna-
gogue means coming back, after 25 years,
to the town where he grew up.
A graduate of both Berkley High School
and the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor, his family — including parents Mary
and Abe Gamer, now of West Bloomfield —
were members at Congregation Beth Achim,
now merged into Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills.
Gamer spent several years studying and
working in New York. While earning a mas-

Prior to Shabbat, on the eve of the installation ceremony, are Rabbi Diamond, Rabbi

Gamer, Aryeh, Wendy, Oz and Maya Gamer.

ter's degree in Jewish education from JTS,
his roommate was Steven Rubenstein, now
West Bloomfield Congregation Beth Ahm's
rabbi. While in rabbinical school, Gamer
was a classmate of Rabbi Jonathan Berger,
rabbi in residence at Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit in Farmington Hills.
Following graduate school, Gamer served
as the international Kadima director and
director of tikkun olam (repair of the
world) programs for the United Synagogue
Youth in New York.
He returned to JTS, where he pursued his
rabbinic ordination and — a wife.
"I was in my second year of rabbinical
school and I met Wendy, who was then a
first-year student in a JTS graduate pro-
gram': he said. "We met outside the semi-
nary sulckah."
Wendy Miller Gamer received her mas-
ter's degrees from JTS and Columbia School
of Social Work.

After Gamer was ordained in 2002, he
became assistant rabbi of Congregation
Beth Judea in suburban Chicago, where he
served until coming to the Detroit area.

Diving In
Gamer delved into communal projects as
well as programs at the more than 450 fam-
ily-unit Beth Shalom as soon as he arrived.
He is meeting colleagues through
memberships in the Conservative move-
ment's Michigan Region of the Rabbinical
Assembly and the multi-stream Michigan
Board of Rabbis. Communally, he is
involved in educational programs including
leading a lunch and learn for Yad Ezra, the
Berkley-based kosher food pantry, and par-
ticipating in this past Sunday's Global Day
of Jewish Learning.
But, he said, "My immediate focus is on
the congregation:' And that includes all
aspects of the nearly 60-year-old progres-

sive, Conservative synagogue. There he
teaches a monthly lunch and learn as well
as other adult education classes.
"I am also working with all the syna-
gogue's kids, to some degree," he said. "On
Friday mornings, I love to tell a Shabbat
story or sing a song in the Gan Shalom
Preschool, where our 3-year-old son Aryeh
goes to school."
The Gamer's other children, Maya, 8, and
Oz, 6, attend classes at Hillel.
The rabbi teaches grades 7-12 at Beth
Shalom's religious school where he holds
"Ask the Rabbi" sessions with students who
try to "stump the rabbi" with questions.
"It's a great give and take, and we've had
some fantastic questions': he said. So far, he
hasn't been stumped. "It will happen." And
that's fine with him. "I'll find the answer
and come back to them with it. I learn from
the kids all the time."

Reaching Out
Gamer also has plans for both Jewish
and non-Jewish communal outreach. The
congregation is set to continue an annual
tradition of hosting guests from the South
Oakland Shelter.
"Their time with us this year will include
Christmas Eve, which falls on Friday night':
Gamer said."So I suggested we have Shabbat
dinner and Christmas dinner together."
The rabbi also is initiating a program
involving community rabbis of various
religious streams. "Obviously we have dif-
ferences," he said, "but I'd like to see us
gather for things that could bring our com-
munities together; things that affect us all,
like feeding people or safety issues within
the community. We all have a great sense
of social action, social justice." He said
colleagues he has spoken with have been
receptive.
Synagogue President Joshua Adler said,
"We are thrilled to have Rabbi Gamer and
his family at Beth Shalom. He is warm,
open, thoughtful and committed to build-
ing on the spiritual community we main-
tained during the past two years when
our very talented and dedicated members
stepped up to lead services and read
Torah. We are proud of the fact that we can
welcome Rabbi Gamer to a strong, grow-
ing community."
Added Gamer, "I'm looking forward
to reaching out to all the different parts
of the congregation, bringing everyone
together in a move forward." El

November 11 • 2010

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